1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates mainly to fuel piping for connecting a fuel tank of a vehicle such as a motorcycle or the like and a drive unit including an engine.
2. Description of Background Art
In the related art, in vehicles such as a motorcycle, a four-wheel buggy, or the like, fuel piping is employed for connecting a fuel tank having a fuel port for storing fuel such as gasoline therein and a fuel supply mechanism for supplying the fuel to an engine. See, for example, JP-A-2003-214276.
In such vehicles, since a fuel system including the fuel piping and the fuel supply mechanism is positioned to be covered by the fuel tank, it is necessary to dismount the fuel tank when performing maintenance of the fuel system. In this case, since the dismounting work of the fuel tank is performed in a state in which the fuel piping is connected to the fuel tank, it is generally required that the fuel piping has flexibility, taking performance of assembling and maintenance into consideration.
Therefore, since the fuel piping is formed of rubber material having flexibility, a tensile strength or the like exerted on the fuel piping is absorbed, for example, when dismounting the fuel tank.
However, since the rubber material employed in the fuel piping as in the related art according to JP-A-2003-214276 is required to have a desired flexibility and a capability to resist high pressure from fuel flowing therein, the cost is high. Thus, a problem arises in that the manufacturing cost of the fuel piping increases.
Forming the fuel piping with resin material, which is lower in cost, instead of costly rubber material is conceivable. However, in such a case, since the resin material is low in flexibility in comparison with the rubber material, the flexibility of the layout of the fuel piping may be limited due to a tensile strength or the like exerted on the fuel piping during the maintenance work.